Cynicism at the pumps

   Cynicism was the overriding sentiment among a half dozen motorists interviewed for the story on a possible suspension of taxes on gasoline.

   Flat out, three motorists didn't believe they'd be any better off. They believed some level of government would somehow raise fees or taxes elsewhere to siphon off the lost revenue.

   There was also anger. One complained bitterly about politicians. Another blamed the gasoline problem on an environmental group, saying its opposition to drilling for domestic oil and natural gas has led to a dangerous dependence on imported sources. Another wondered why there are government subsidies to oil companies at a time they are posting record profits.

   Everybody had at least a quick opinion when asked. Feel free to share yours here.

   -- John F. Bonfatti

Comments

[Texas Longhorn]

Go after the environmentalist policies. They are creating unneeded costs to everything in this world. Food Crisis and unneeded spending to satisfy their liberal "feel good" agenda.

Even Gore is blaming the Burmese disaster on global warming. Look at his house and the amount of "footprints" he leaves.

Don't blame the Oil Companies, blame the environmentalists that drive up the costs with their wacko policies.

[Troy Cumbo]

The Three Cynics are absolutely correct. Tax cuts are useless without matching spending cuts, so the tax you cut one day becomes the extra tax with interest you pay on another. It's a Shell game, pardon the pun.

Higher gas prices are a good thing, and the U.S. is spoiled rotten with gas prices that are *absurdly* low relative to our incomes. And while you may gripe about oil subsidies, remember that it's oil subsidies that keep the pump price low in the first place. Part of your real per-gallon cost is inflated with the customary government markup then tossed on to your income tax bill for it to be doled out by our Idiot Kings.

So long as the government continues to meddle in the market, giving outlet to consumer displeasure, the more it persists the status quo. It's time for the government to take its hands off. No subsidies, no silly "environmental" legislation. Alternative fuel is a joke until the consumer is done with fossil fuels. And they won't be done with fossil fuels so long as the government will bend over backwards and kill brown people just to bring you a steady oil supply. There *IS* a demand elasticity in the curve, we're just not there yet.

As for the "record profits" of oil companies, they have record revenues, because we're seeing record consumption. Are you lefties so daft? Profit margins in the oil industry are tiny compared to dozens of others, but I don't hear anybody clamoring for "windfall profit taxes" for the paper mill industry. The harping on oil company profits is political nonsense, and progressives are just bleating along out of that inflamed and misguided sense of social justice.

[Beth]

I would have no problems with the higher gas taxes if our government used the money to fund decent public transportation and the development and sale of high milage cars.

Look at the situation in Buffalo and suburbs. If I wanted to go "downtown" I could take a bus- but I could not take a bus from where I live in Ken-Ton to the Boulevard Mall unless I wanted to spend an hour waiting for connections. There is one bus that travels down Sheridan Drive (east/ west road) that runs once (on average) every hour and a half.

Subdivisions were built that required a car to get a store to purchase a gallon of milk. I really have no "pity" for people who CHOSE to live in a subdivision with no nearby stores, who CHOSE to purchase gas guzzlers (opps I forgot... military based vehicles err Hummers are *needed* to protect Clarence) and are now complaining about gas prices. Stop blaming and take responsibility for being part of the problem.

Companies followed suit and built in the suburbs- away from any sort of public transportation so the only way to work for them was to own a car.

Along the same lines- why did it take an employee being killed before the Walden Galleria allowed a bus stop on to mall property?

Look at the "new" commercial construction in the city of Buffalo itself- why did the Target Plaza on Delaware Avenue have to be a suburban style shopping center? It is extremely dangerous to attempt to walk to Target from Delaware Avenue. Isn't a big "roadblock" to Bass Pro (who is going to save Buffalo like Kmart saved the east side of Buffalo... oh wait... they CLOSED) the amount of parking- the fact that they want to have a huge suburban style store in a city setting?

Until we get both a decent public transportation system and people stop "blaming" the "government" and start to take responsibility for their use of non-renewable resources then we can have a conversation.

[Fox News Hound]

Right on, Texas! All you complainers should just forget about the oil companies' tens of billions of dollars in profits. And I don't want to hear any more about how our government has spent decades failing to plan to reduce oil dependence.

Everyone knows it's the little tree huggers that are really to blame. If we were allowed to drill in those protected areas of the good ol' USA, why we'd be only paying about...well...aw shucks, I don't know how much we'd be paying. But I do know it would be A LOT less and that it is the liberals' fault! Gotta go, Rush will be on soon.

[bob]

Profit margins in the oil industry are tiny

former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond:

$400,000,000
That's just his retirement package. Last year, he got $6,000 an hour, $144,000 a day or about $51-million annually.

10.25.06
the Bush Administration's Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has hand-picked former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond to" lead an influential study to develop policy solutions to America’s energy crisis".

He was the mastermind behind Exxon's refusal to invest in renewable energy and funding of think tanks and front groups that confuse the public on global warming.

How in the world could he even manage to work in such a tiny profit margin?
He shoulda took a job at Wal-mart.

[Neil]

Anyone think reinstating the 55 mph highway speed limit would be a good idea, did actually save gas?

[Don H]

Much of the public has always blamed the American oil companies for high gas prices even when those same companies for decades provided American drivers with the lowest gasoline prices in the world. This general belief was also mightily fueled by political rhetoric.

[Troy Cumbo]

"former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond:

$400,000,000
That's just his retirement package...."

Newsflash, Greenspan: Profit = Revenue - Expenses.

Payroll is an Expense.

[bob]

$400,000,000
That's just his retirement package. Last year, he got $6,000 an hour, $144,000 a day or about $51 MILLION ANNUALLY.

Newsflash
That's the eqivalent of the entire budgets of many small cities or towns.

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company $40.6 BILLION.
the company beat its own record for the highest profit ever recorded by a U.S. company.

$1,300.00 per second.

$40.6 BILLION profit - after paying out many payrolls and retirements, out of this galaxy. Make that universe!

[Troy Cumbo]

What difference does that make? It's a really big number, so you should get some cut of it?

It doesn't matter how high it is. CEOs are paid from revenues, not profits. And his salary happens to be 0.1% of those profits, which means it's an even tinier percentage of revenues. His pay has no impact on profit margins, so what's your point? That he makes more than you? That the CEO has a higher income than some nowheresville towns have in tax revenues? Oh noes!!!

Cry me a river, collectivist.

[Texas Kid]

Oil is the lifeblood of the world's economies. That being said, the U.S. has really done nothing to find moree of it and get it to market. ANWR could have been done 15 years ago, but your "far-sighted" New York politicians like Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton saw to it that no oil will be dug up there. Why anyone outside of New York would listen to anybody in the state of New York talk about economics makes no sense. New York State's government is so dysfunctional and self serving, they should build a wall around the state so "voters who approved these dumb policies" can't vote elsewhere and mess things up like they did in Buffalo and New York. So pay the price with your high gas taxes people of Buffalo. Your highways are pretty crappy in my opinion for what you're paying in gas taxes for highway construction. Of course, we in Texas appreciate you voting for increased federal taxes for gasoline so we can continue building new highways for the massive influx of people we are getting in Texas. You voted them in..you pay the price at the pump.

[Lloyd Marshall, Jr.]

Texas folks... AMEN to your postings, and again an AMEN!

The fuel for freedom's engine is none other than... OIL!

In other countries(Dubai, Saudi Arabia, China, etc.), they don't let the environazis cow them into submission. If any of these tree-hugging sickies try to gum up the works, they are summarily jailed---or worse. We should take a page from their playbooks and likewise deal with said envirofreaks.

A good amount of this enviromental vanity comes from the Hollywierdos such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Teddy Danson. The point in their favor is that they can afford $4, $5, or more per gallon for gas. The rest of us everyday Slobowskis(I think that's the term Mike Ditka used to contrast his Chicago Bears from the then-LA Rams before the '85 NFC title game) just CAN'T afford that!

And last I checked, we elected people to represent OUR interests... to stand for OUR values. We didn't elect them to heed the voice of the GreenPeacers, EarthFirsters, or the rest of those pabulum-puking enviroloons. We didn't elect said enviroclowns to speak for us either.

Whish is why I say... START the offshore drilling! START ANWR! START drilling within our 50 states if there are oil deposits. Heck, I wouldn't mind them drilling in my neighborhood, behind my residence. We have the technology to drill for oil in an environmentally-responsible manner... let's just GO AND GET IT!!!! This way, no more OPEC... no more Hugo Chavez... no more foreign oil magnates. We can take care of OUR OWN needs.

So, to those well-meaning souls in GreenPeace, EarthFirst, etc.... Go take a long walk... off a SHORT pier!

[Jim Ostrowski]

Free NY proposed elimination of the state share 32.4 cents and paid for it with spending cuts.

http://blog.freeny.org/?p=3304

Vermont and NH have lower taxes and the price at the pump reflects that as common sense would suggest.

[Anthony]

Tax the big oil companies;like we tax the tobacco companies,and eliminate all current taxes on gasoline,and use part of this money to hasten new technology to run our vehicles etc.

[Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki]

Ever thought about the impact that pumping oil and gas from "down under" might have on the recent frequency of earthquakes?

What's holding Earth together if we've created massive "holes" inside our fragile planet?

Don't drive, don't guzzle.

[Lloyd Marshall, Jr.]

Lydia spouts...

"Ever thought about the impact that pumping oil and gas from 'down under' might have on the recent frequency of earthquakes?

"What's holding Earth together if we've created massive 'holes' inside our fragile planet?

"Don't drive, don't guzzle."

File under... Kool-Aid Alert!

[Troy Cumbo]

Lydia! Dude. First off, pumping oil from "down under" has no effect on seismic activity; the mass being extracted, while certainly a large number when compared to our checkbook balances and hot water tank capacities and whatnot, is effectively zero compared to the mass of the plates that strike and shift during an earthquake.

Second, what's holding Earth together is a force we scientific types call "gravity". That force has left us with a 6 x 10^24 kg ball of iron, aluminum, and silicon. There's nothing fragile about this planet, you've just been reading too much Native American Mother Earth nonsense.

This planet will kill us long before we do it any harm.

[NY Hater]

Plain and Simple.....New York SUCKS. Any part of NY is a Joke. It's all about POLITICS. New York is the Second Highest in Taxes and one of the Lowest for Jobs and the rate of pay. Keep it up NY and pretty soon there won't be many people left in this state to collect taxes from.